John  Maudlin, a great financial writer and consultant, recently wrote a piece about the “Bonfire of the Absurdities”.  He was

using it as a financial metaphor.   The actual book he was referring to is Thomas Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities.”  It was written several years ago about the financial markets.  I think it was made into a movie.  Nevertheless, that’s not the point of this post but it is a reference marker.

Back in 1490 in Florence there was a ruling family called the Medici family.  These were all powerful people and they brought in a Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola to serve them.  In a few years, however, Girolamo was more or less ruling the city.  Within 5 years, in 1495, during the pre-Lenten carnival, Girolamo began hosting a “bonfire of the vanities”.  During this time people would burn objects that inspired the deadly sin of vanity.  These included mirrors, …